Edwardsville resident makes bid for backyard chickens

Published 10:59 pm, Tuesday, March 29, 2016

EDWARDSVILLE — Backyard chickens aren’t allowed under city ordinance, but that will change if Micah Wall has anything to do with it.

Wall is the man behind an online petition to change Edwardsville’s ordinance to allow residents to keep hens in their backyards. He started the petition a week ago, and it has 379 signatures. A Facebook page he started two weeks ago had 627 followers as of Tuesday afternoon.

But Wall and his supporters will have to translate online popularity into demonstrated backing from the community at large before bringing the cause before the Edwardsville City Council for consideration.

“We need to be able to sit down and break (the signatures) down into wards, so we don’t just have a faceless petition online,” Wall said.

A proposed ordinance amendment would allow residents to keep up to six hens, but no roosters, in their backyard. The ordinance would set guidelines for coop construction and distance from neighboring properties, fencing rules and an annual licensing fee.

Response to the online petition was swift and positive, Wall said, but it will take time and effort to bring an ordinance revision to light.

“We had so many people contact us through the (Facebook) page who want to help. Now we need to take the steps necessary to gain more traction. The biggest obstacle is gathering enough support,” Wall said. “We’re not going to have unanimous support. We don’t expect it.”

The next step will be to hold a meeting for those interested in volunteering. Then, a group of volunteers will gather signatures on a paper petition, whether by going door-to-door or by setting up a booth at the Land of Goshen Community Market in Downtown Edwardsville. Once a petition with enough names from each ward has been completed, the proposal will make its way to a city committee, and finally to the council.

At least one alderman is in favor of an ordinance change. Ward 5 Alderman Will Krause said he has an interest in backyard chickens because he grew up on a farm. He is helping Wall develop guidelines he believes the city council will want to see in order to pass an ordinance reform.

“This has become a trend around the county, and it’s something Edwardsville didn’t get on right away as that trend unrolled. We have a lot of examples of communities around us that have already gone through this process,” Krause said. “The key is to have restrictions and guidelines in place that will allow orderly neighborhood conduct to occur and also make sure chickens are in a safe environment.”

Alton and several St. Louis County municipalities approved backyard chicken ordinances in the past several years.

Educating the council and community about benefits of keeping chickens in an urban space will be essential to Wall’s cause, Krause said. People who own chickens collect their eggs, use their manure, give the birds food scraps instead of sending them to the landfill and enjoy their natural insect controlling habits. Many households also keep chickens as family pets. And without roosters, the noise will be minimal, Wall said.

Mayor Hal Patton said he is neutral on the topic.

“If people want to do this, let’s make sure aldermen work through concerns and figure out a method to get the ordinance strong enough to take care of both those that are for and those that are against it,” Patton said. “But I’m not overly concerned. So many other communities have done it, and there are ways it can be done. I’m certain we can be capable of getting it done here.”

Patton did express concern about smell, noise and attracting predators into backyards. Another issue Krause said aldermen will bring up is what chicken owners will do when their birds come to the end of their egg-laying life, or, if the chickens are pets, what owners will do if they can no longer keep them.

“We don’t want to see an overflow at the local humane societies,” Krause said. “Ultimately it’s a public policy decision. Some council members I don’t believe are in favor of this idea, but some are.”

It could easily be another six to eight months before enough support is drummed up, the alderman said. That timeline is something Wall said he is willing to take on. When he started the petition, he said he thought it could be another year before the ordinance changed. The mayor said if an ordinance amendment came about, he’s confident it will be the right one.

“We are responsible and we will listen, but it takes time to listen to all sides and write responsible legislation,” Patton said. “It takes time to do things right.”

Reporter Kelsey Landis can be reached at 618-208-6460, Ext. 1396 or on Twitter @kelseylandis.